This sixth leveler wanted to "fight," so he took a bat during a shootout at a school.

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"It was really chaotic," said the 12-year-old. "Most children did not know what to do."

Nate said that he was frozen when shots had broken a window. A siren rang and someone in his class made a joke. His teacher silenced the student and placed him behind a desk and then in the closet.

"I had my hand on a metal baseball bat just in case," Nate told Brooke Baldwin of CNN. "Because I was going to beat myself if I went down."

Nate's heartbreaking tale is a tragic reminder of what it means to be a child in the United States at the age of school shooting.

Senior Kendrick Castillo was just days away from graduation when he died while falling on one of the shooters. Eight other students were shot but survived.

Now, a community too accustomed to mass shootings oscillates between sorrow and gratitude for the fact that there have not been more casualties.

This student died trying to stop the Colorado school shooter
A few weeks earlier, Nate's school had been locked out due to threats to nearby Columbine High School, just days before the 20th anniversary of the deadly massacre that had taken place there.
In 2013, the shooting at Arapahoe High School caused a new lockout at the Nate School, announced his father, Steve Holley.

Tuesday's shooting marked the third time that Steve Holley had to get his sons back to school in these circumstances. But it was the first time that his own child was a direct witness and a survivor of such a tragedy.

"This community in Colorado has gone through so much recently," said Steve Holley.

"Enough, that's enough, we need to make a change and we have to do something else, otherwise we will continue to leave our children in check."

As the situation evolved Tuesday, Steve Holley shared on Twitter his experience of waiting to find his children.

Fortunately, he knew very early that his sons were safe, he said.

A friend called to offer to pick up his other son "because of what was happening at STEM," Steve Holley tweeted.

Meanwhile, Nate had borrowed a cell phone and called his father into the classroom, he said.

"I told him to be brave," he said. "I told him that I loved him and that I was leaving."

For nearly five hours, the Holley waited with hundreds of parents in a recreation center to find their children.

Parents find children evacuated from STEM School Highlands Ranch after a shootout at school.

He is grateful to the police for their management of the situation, but heartbroken by what his children and classmates have experienced.

Asked about the decision to let his son appear on television, Steve Holley responded that he had left the responsibility to Nate, who chose to speak.

"But I think it's important to hear not only adults but also children," said Father.

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